The Portsmouth High School baseball team won the Division II championship in 2011. Nothing new there. But this year, the Clippers' season came with an interesting footnote attached.

A 9-6 win over St. Thomas Aquinas in the state championship game clinched Portsmouth its fourth straight and a national-record 83rd consecutive victory overall. However, the Clippers will enter the 2012 season with the second longest winning streak in the country.

That's because unbeknownst to Portsmouth until days before it happened, another team stole its thunder during the dog days of summer. A tiny school from Martensdale, Iowa, won its state championship with a streak that now stands at 87 games. In Iowa, high school baseball is played from late May to July.

Portsmouth establishing the national record for consecutive wins — then losing it through no fault of their own but still owning a chance to break the new record when the next season begins in a few months — was just one of the more interesting local sports stories in 2011, and could set the stage for a memorable highlight of 2012.

It was a year of fantastic finishes, and none was more thrilling than the Dover boys lacrosse team winning the Division II championship with a goal with 0.1 seconds remaining in an 8-7 win against Souhegan. The Green Wave scored the final five goals of the game in the last 11 minutes. Foster's player of the year Dylan Stohrer scored four of those goals, including the game-winner, and ended the game with six.

One of the most exciting moments of the year on the local sports scene took place in November and also featured Dover High School. The Green Wave football team faced rival Spaulding for the first time ever in a championship tournament, and Dover took a 14-0 lead after one period and appeared well on its way to an easy win. But Spaulding climbed back, cutting Dover's lead to 21-13 at halftime. Spaulding then tied the game in the third quarter, where it was tied 21-21 going into the final frame. A fourth-quarter that featured numerous momentum shifts culminated in a last-second field goal by sophomore Cam Rewucki, who kicked it straight and true through the uprights for a 24-21 Dover win.

It was a year of reclamation projects. Just a year removed from a five-win season, the Marshwood field hockey team clinched its first-ever Western Maine Class A championship with a 4-1 win over Portland in the championship game, six years after Lisa Truesdale took over the once-hapless program. Marshwood did not score a goal in 2005 and went winless in 2006. Marshwood lost in the state championship game to perennial power Skowhegan, but finished the season with a 14-4 record.

It was a year for dominant teams and individuals to continue dominating. In wrestling, Noble and Marshwood went 1-2 in the Class A state tournament, the Knights' 11th team title in the last 13 seasons. Noble's Ben Valencia won an individual championship at 140 pounds, while Marshwood claimed three individual titles — Jake Rasque at 119, Josh Perschy at 285 and Tyler Davidson at 112.

The Oyster River High School boys and the Coe-Brown girls repeated as Division II cross-country champions. Oyster River senior Jack Collopy was second in the boys championship race, while Coe-Brown placed six runners in the top 19, led by freshman sensation Hannah Parker, who took second in 18:53.

Julia Keenan, St. Thomas tennis player extraordinaire, won her third straight individual NHIAA tennis championship and was part of a winning doubles tandem for the second time in three years. Keenan capped her undefeated 2011 season with a 6-0, 6-0 win over Manchester Central's Casey Geddes for her third consecutive state singles title. Geddes had been undefeated herself going into that match and hadn't lost more than two games in any set until the semifinals. Keenan will look to become the first four-time NHIAA champion this spring, and is set to attend Seton Hall next fall on a tennis scholarship.

It was a year for teams to return to championship form. The Dover boys hockey team claimed its first championship since 2008 with a thoroughly dominating 5-1 win over Merrimack in the championship game at the Verizon Wireless Arena. Merrimack was the tournament's top seed with two regular-season wins over Dover under its belt entering the final.

The Somersworth basketball team became the first team not named Conant to win a championship in the state's third-largest division, winning its first championship since 2005 with a 45-39 win over Bow in the D-III title game. The 'Toppers' tournament run included a thrilling 64-61 overtime win over Conant in the quarterfinals and a buzzer-beating win over Berlin in the semis. Against Bow, Somersworth was led by 5-foot-8 senior guard Matt Fauci, who finished with a game-high 16 points, as well as three steals and three assists. Bobby Shatinsky added 15 points and 10 rebounds.

The Portsmouth girls lacrosse team earned the D-II title with a 19-14 win over Merrimack in the championship game — like Dover boys hockey, it was the Clippers' first crown since 2008.

In college field hockey, the University of New Hampshire won the America East championship with a 4-2 win over Boston University in the tournament final. The win earned UNH its first championship, and NCAA tournament berth, since 1998 and its first championship-game win in three tries in the last four years. Hayley Rausch led the Wildcats with two goals in the win over BU, but the Wildcats lost to Michigan in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The Oyster River track team won its first indoor championship since 2007 when it captured the Division II title back in February. Gubby Noronha established a new state record with a time of 2 minutes, 33.09 seconds in the 1,000-meter run. Noronha also won the 3,000.

It was a year of firsts. The Somersworth hockey team finally reached the top of the mountain in Division III, running the table from December to March. They capped the program's finest hour with an 8-3 win over Kennett in the championship game. It was Somersworth's first trip to a state hockey championship in 30-plus years as a program, and all of it happened after the team's funding was cut just before the start of the school year.

Jaret Canney led the way with 32 goals, 54 assists, 86 points, and ended his career with a school-record 230 points. The hockey team won the championship less than 24 hours after the Somersworth basketball team won its D-III tournament, capping a memorable weekend for Hilltopper sports fans.

The Traip Academy girls track and field team won the Maine Class C state title, finishing first out of 29 schools. Carley O'Brien won the 100-meter hurdles and the long jump, and finished second in the triple jump. She also ran a leg of the victorious 4x100 relay team.The summer featured the debut of a new collegiate-level baseball team in Rochester, as the Seacoast Mavericks started play in the new Futures Collegiate Baseball Leage. Relying heavily on local talent, the Mavericks struggled mightily in the new, four-team league, finishing in last place with a record of 10-33.

Spaulding junior Cody Bond won the NHIAA individual bowling championship, averaging 207 for six games and beating Pinkerton's Jon Pierson 208-132 in the stepladder final for the title. The week before, Bond managed 31 strikes in 63 deliveries to anchor the Red Raiders to the first-ever state championship team bowling title.

Unified sports made its debut on the high-school level. A partnership program between the NHIAA and Special Olympics of New Hampshire featured four Unified Sports soccer teams, three or which were local teams. The Unified Sports program allows Special Olympics athletes and their teammates without intellectual disabilities to practice and play together. Spaulding, Oyster River and Dover participated, and the Red Raiders won the first-ever official state title by beating Laconia in the championship game.

It was another year of "what-ifs" for the University of New Hampshire men's hockey team. The Wildcats lost 2-1 to Notre Dame in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament in Manchester in March, marking the third season in a row the Wildcats finished one game short of the Frozen Four.

It was a year of summer fun on the diamond. The Rochester 14-U Slammers softball team won the state title, outscoring their opponents 43 to 3. The Slammers were second in the regional tournament. The Dover Cal Ripken 12-year-old all-stars surprised everyone by almost winning the New England 70-foot regional tournament, which they hosted, falling 8-3 in the championship game at Beckwith Park. The Rochester 13-year-old Babe Ruth baseball team was one win short of a state championship, losing a pair of games on the tournament's final day, one of which was a 10-inning thriller.

The Dover American Legion Post 8 baseball team was state runners-up to Bedford, which eventually won the New England regional. Earlier that night, Post 8 rallied from a 9-8 deficit with two runs in the bottom of the ninth to eliminate Rochester Post 7. In Junior Legion, Dover Post 8 fell just short in its quest to win its third straight title, falling 7-6 to Hudson Post 48 in the tournament semifinals.

It was a year of triumph for local teams on the gridiron. St. Thomas Aquinas, under first-year head coach Eric Cumba, rolled through its Division V schedule, winning all nine regular-season games and cruising to the championship with a 49-28 win over Windham in the final. The championship game was close at times but the outcome was never really in doubt. Ryan Monette was a monster all season for the Saints, and he came up big in the championship game with four touchdowns along with 282 rushing yards on 31 carries.

Portsmouth won its first Division III championship with a 41-6 blowout over Bedford in the final. The Clippers were trying to avoid a fourth-straight loss in the D-III title tilt. Portsmouth's Bill Lane rushed for 133 yards and three touchdowns on 19 carries to lead his team to its first state title since winning the Division I championship 30 years prior.

While the Dover football team's quest for a Division II championship ended in disappointment, the Green Wave's season was anything but. Dover went 9-4 on the year and lost 16-7 at Bishop Guertin in the state championship final. It was Dover's first trip to the championship game since 2004.

Spaulding football returned to relevance in 2012. The Red Raiders made the playoffs for the first time since 2006 after a near-disatrous 0-4 start to the season, getting outscored by its opponents 125-8 in that stretch. Spaulding then caught fire, winning five straight and earning the No. 3 spot in the tournament and a date with rival Dover, which culminated in Rewucki's field-goal kick for the ages.

The UNH football team made its seventh trip in eight years to the NCAA Division I FCS tournament. The Wildcats lost in excruciating fashion, 26-25 at Montana State in the first round. The loss was eerily similar to one the Wildcats suffered in 1976, when UNH fell 17-16 at Montana State in the quarterfinals of the Division II tournament, a game that was also decided on a missed extra point.

John Doyle is the Sunday Sports Editor for Foster's Daily Democrat. Follow him on Twitter @JohnDoyle603.

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